Importance of Needles – One of the most significant parts of today’s home sewing/embroidery machines is often the least appreciated and most obscure – the needle. A sewing machine needle is a slender strand of metal, shaped to precision, that delivers thread to the machine to create a stitch. We spend thousands of dollars on the most advanced machines, acquire the best digitized designs, use the most lustrous thread, and the most beautiful fabric to produce our projects. But all too often this is all for naught because we either use a old, worn, damaged needle or we use the wrong needle for the fabric.
Changing needles – Needles can be damaged by normal use. You don’t have to hit a pin while sewing to damage your needle. They can become dull, bent, damaged or get misshapen eyes through normal sewing. All these contribute to frustrating thread breaks and a frayed look on your finished projects. The best advice we can give is this: When you start a new project, start with a new needle. It’s the least expensive part of a superior finished project. Overall, a clean, well functioning needle will result in sharp, well-shaped stitches. Needles are inexpensive and easy to change. Keeping a good needle in your sewing machine is one of the easiest, least expensive ways to improve your embroidery and sewing projects. Some designers recommend changing your needle after every ten hours of sewing time.
Sharp vs. ball point – Needles fall into two primary categories for embroidery – ball point and sharp. It is important to use the correct needle. Ball point needles are designed to alleviate making holes in knit or loosely woven materials. The cross fibers which constitute the knit or loosely woven materials are relatively far apart as compared to those in tightly woven materials. If a knit strand of thread is cut with a sharp needle, it produces a hole that will enlarge when the loose fibers pull back from the cut. To prevent this, the ball point needle is designed to push aside the individual strands of the knit. This assumes that the ball point needle point is in good condition. If you notice rough edges on your embroidery or other developing irregularities, it is time to change to a new needle. Sharp needles are designed for woven fabrics. Because of the tightness of the weave, individual cut fibers will not pull away and make holes. For this exact reason it is important not to use ball point needles on wovens. The blunt force of a ball point will tear through the fibers and actually pull them in the process, resulting in uneven, irregular embroidery and damage to the fabric. Sharp needles can be used on all wovens as well as dense fabrics such as leather, vinyl, canvas, etc.
Ballpoint – The ballpoint needle has a rounded point of varying degrees. Its primary application is to sew on knit type fabrics. The rounded tip slips between yarns rather than cutting them. This prevents broken fibers and the attendant unraveling.
Denim – The denim (jeans) needle has a very sharp, acute point with a slender eye and a strong shaft. The sharp point is necessary to penetrate heavy fabrics like denim and canvass. The slender eye holds the thread in place for proper loop formation. The strong shaft prevents deflection of the needle and insures accurate needle placement for stitch formation.
Embroidery – The embroidery needle has a sharp point, a large eye and a special scarf to protect specialized decorative threads in embroidery. It also has a shorter point-to-eye length to enhance embroidery applications by ensuring extra clearance between the needle point and the embroidered article as it moves for succeeding stitches.
Leather – The leather needle has a wedge shaped point which gives it the piercing strength it needs to penetrate heavy fabrics like leather and vinyl. The needle makes a very clean hole in the fabric, so mistakes are costly.
Metallica – The Metallica needle is specifically designed for metallic threads. It has a large, elongated Teflon(r) coated eye, larger scarf and a larger groove to protect the more fragile metallic threads during stitch formation. The Metalfil needle has an elongated, coated eye, fine shaft, and a medium sharp point.
Quilting – The quilting needle has a tapered point for stitching through multiple layers and across seams. The shape of the point minimizes damage to the quilting fabric.
Microtex – This needle is sharper than the universal point with a more slender shaft. It is used primarily on fine wovens and for heirloom sewing on very fine fabrics and for synthetic suede.
Topstitch – The topstitch needle has an extra large eye and a much deeper groove for use with either heavier fabrics and/or heavier threads. It can even accommodate doubling of threads for more pronounced stitching.
Wing Needles – A wing needle is typically used for various heirloom sewing techniques. It is also called a “hemstitching needle”. It has large flanges on each side of the shank which are used to create holes in tightly woven fabrics such as linen or cotton batiste. The two most common stitches that are used with the wing needle are “Entredeux stitch” and “Pinstitch”. These stitches can be used to attach heirloom lace to linen or batiste fabrics. Normally you would use a light weight tearaway stabilizer underneath the stitches, an open toe presser foot and spray starch on the fabric. Some machine embroidery designs use wing needles to create dainty holes in linen fabrics.
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